THE 1998 ELECTIONS: THE NATION -- REFERENDUMS

THE 1998 ELECTIONS: THE NATION -- REFERENDUMS; Voters Back End to State Preferences

By SAM HOWE VERHOVEK and B. DRUMMOND AYRES Jr.

Published: November 4, 1998

SEATTLE, Nov. 3—
Giving a major lift to critics of affirmative action, Washington State voters tonight appear to have soundly approved an initiative that would ban most state-supported forms of the policy. They did so two years after California voters made theirs the first state in the nation to do so, and the vote is almost certain to spur efforts in other states.

With 38 percent of precincts reporting, the measure known as Initiative 200 was running ahead, 60 percent to 40 percent. Under the measure's wording, the state ''shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin'' in education, employment or contracting.

The language was similar to that used in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but critics of the measure, including the state's Governor, Gary Locke, a Democrat, warned that the measure had ''hidden consequences'' and would roll back gains made in programs that expand opportunities for women and minorities.

In votes on other initiatives, Washington voters gave broad support to a measure that would legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes and voted down a proposal to criminalize the late-term abortion procedure that critics call partial-birth abortion. In Colorado, a similar abortion measure was evenly split with 40 percent of precincts reporting.

In Oregon, early returns suggested that state was poised to become the first in the nation to do away entirely with polling booths: if trends continue and the measure passes, the state will conduct all future elections entirely by mail.

In California, surveys of voters as they left the polls and early returns indicated that voters were broadly supporting a measure to expand casino gambling on Indian tribal lands. The battle between the Indian tribes and Nevada casinos led to campaign spending of almost $100 million, by far the most money ever spent on an initiative in the nation's history.

The previous record was $57.5 million for a 1996 securities fraud measure in California.

In Massachusetts, voters backed a campaign-finance overhaul plan that would provide for public financing of most state election campaigns.

These were among the more closely fought initiatives and proposed constitutional amendments on state ballots around the nation.

South Carolinians were asked to decide whether to remove a 103-year-old passage in their constitution that forbids marriage between a white person and a black person, a provision that the United States Supreme Court has already ruled unenforceable. With 80 percent of precincts reporting tonight, 62 percent of voters were in favor of removing the language, while 38 percent voted not to remove it.

In Michigan, where supporters of the assisted-suicide initiative hoped to follow the success of a similar movement in Oregon, voters were rejecting the idea by a better than 2 to 1. Support for the measure foundered in recent weeks when the nation's best-known advocate of doctor-assisted suicide, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, announced that he opposed the initiative: he said it imposed too many restrictions and too much bureaucracy on the process.

The measure would have allowed terminally ill patients to petition the state for the right to take lethal drugs. In the first nine months of the Oregon program, state officials announced earlier this year, 10 people in that state were given the right to take such drugs: eight died after taking the medication and two others died before doing so.

In Washington State, two years after voters in California and Arizona passed measures providing for the medical use of marijuana, residents passed a similar measure today, according to surveys at the polls. Voters in Nevada, Oregon and Alaska were also considering such measures today.

Lawsuits and objections by the Clinton Administration have blocked the Arizona and California measures from taking effect.

Also in Washington, the voter surveys indicated that voters had rejected a proposal to criminalize the late-term abortion procedure that critics call ''partial-birth abortion.'' Abortion-rights supporters condemned the measure, saying its terminology was overly vague and might open the way for banning abortion in general. The question before the voters was: ''Shall the termination of a fetus' life during the process of birth be a felony crime except when necessary to prevent the pregnant woman's death?''